DIY Paper Plate Fish

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So, to be quite honest, I had another idea in mind when I started this craft. I kind of winged it (wung it?) to see what would happen if we water colored cupcake liners to make a fish scale craft. My mommy-brained self thought that the cupcake liners would stay perky and add some dimension to my fish. Boy was I wrong! Luckily, the fish still turned out super adorbz (channeling my inner tween) and because you are here reading this, I’d like to think you agree! To make our DIY Paper Plate Fish, you will need the following:

A large colored paper plate (we used one that was oval but a circle works fine too!)

White mini-cupcake liners

Watercolors with….water…

A paintbrush

Something in the family of stickers, jewels, glitter, etc.

Glue

Fork or other “spreading device”4

Colored construction paper

Does it seem like a lot of supplies? Yes. But most likely you have 95% of these items lying around your house. If you don’t, try thinking of a replacement before heading to the store! It’s that simple. 🙂

So to kick things off I squeezed a line of white glue down the center of my plate and gave my toddler a fork to start spreading the glue wherever he could. Why use this method? Because I think it’s really important to show kids new ways to use the items they’re accustomed to. It keeps their imagination alive and encourages them to always think outside the box.

Once the glue was spread, I gave little G the mini-cupcake liners to stick onto the plate and then followed up with some extra snowflake sequins we had sitting around the house. We know that fish scales have some sparkle so we had to be sure and incorporate that somewhere.

Then, once everything had dried we started to watercolor the liners! I mixed a very saturated watercolor so that the colors we got would be pretty vivid. To do this, just mix a tablespoon or two of water with A LOT of watercolor paint. Keep in mind that your dried paint will appear slightly lighter than your mixed wet paint.

From there, G painted his fish with the colors. I needed to help hold the paint containers to prevent any spillage and I also helped change out the colors, turn the plate, etc. to make sure we were being artsy all over our fish and not just in one spot. This was probably his first time ever painting with a brush and I had a very proudmama moment when I realized he was really really good at it! Haha!

DIY Paper Plate Fish

G is 18 months here and doing a great job with his fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and grasping methods!

We let all of the paint dry overnight because our liners were soaked. Oh! And this was when I finally realized that the liners were going to flatten out and I just had to deal with it.

The next morning we got our dry fish out and glued on a construction paper tail (just cut out a heart and glue the pointy side under your plate to accomplish our look), an eye, some extra sequins, and then I cut out a triangular sliver for the mouth.

I sincerely think this DIY Paper Plate Fish craft is absolutely adorable and I couldn’t be happier with the color choices! We have a plethora of different fish on our art wall right now – all with varying colors, shapes, and sizes. Isn’t it neat to remind yourself of how diverse fish species are?

We had a blast learning about fish today.. What fish activity or craft have you put together for your little one that they have just loved? Please let us know and be sure to update us on your little one’s fish project by placing a photo on our Facebook page or a comment below!

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HI! I’M ABI

I'm a single mom who works a full-time job and raises my toddler, all from home - 24/7. I love the idea of teaching my toddler through fun activities and projects so there's a lot of that here.. Check out the about me page for more background information and sign up for our monthly newsletter to inspire creative learning in your home!